Traveling gives the opportunity to see different cultures, to contrast and compare as teachers might assign a student to do. Here are some of my observations so far.
1. The y and z on the keyboard I am using are reversed from the American. It also has three extra characters, ö, ä ü if they happen to translate.
2. Munich is a homogeneous culture of nice looking, fit, well behaved people who behave respectfully.
3. Sonja said there is very little crime here. In response to being asked why so many police (polizie I think) sirens, she answered, probably people walking their dogs without a leash.
4. I like the fact there there seems to be little waste. One of my pet peeves is seeing people in public bathrooms who pull off reams of paper towels to dry their hands. The public bathrooms I was in yesterday used what appeared to me to be a more earth friendly paper, and I saw no one overdoing it. There are no plastic bags in the trash cans in our bathroom in the hotel and the maids let us finish our soap and shampoo before re-supplying.
5. Generally it seems to be a more utilitarian way of life.
6. Everyone we have met speaks English. If someone greets me in German, I just say that I don't speak German, I am American, and they speak back in English. So language is not a problem.
7. People greet each other early in the day with "Morgen," the way we shorten "Good Morning" to "Mornin'."
Soon we will be walking out into another cold rain for other explorations.